Brazil goalkeeper Alisson Becker said Carlo Ancelotti is carrying a burden that may be heavier than the president of Brazil as the team arrives for the World Cup. The remark landed just as Brazil turns to its opener against Morocco on Saturday night, with the old expectations back in place and little room to hide.
Alisson’s view matters because Brazil is not simply trying to start well. It is trying to end a title drought that has lasted since 2002 and to chase a record sixth World Cup crown, something the country has not managed despite years of being treated as a favorite. Since that last triumph, Brazil has reached the quarterfinals only once, a stretch that has kept every new campaign tied to the same question: can this team still carry the weight of its history?
The numbers explain why the pressure keeps growing. Brazil has won 17 of its 20 World Cup openers since 1934 and has not lost one in that span, which gives it a strong opening record even before a ball is kicked this time. Morocco, though, is ranked seventh in the world, just behind Brazil at sixth, and Ancelotti has already warned that modern football leaves little room for easy games, saying there is no small-time team.
That warning fits the matchup. Brazil beat Morocco 3-0 in their only World Cup meeting, in the 1998 group stage, but neither side is walking in on reputation alone now. Brazil arrives under the shadow of the 7-1 loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup semis in Belo Horizonte, a result that still hangs over every discussion of the team’s ceiling.
Vinícius Júnior has tried to push the conversation back toward ambition, saying Brazil is there to change history and put the side back at the top, while also arguing the team is at the same level as the other major teams. That is the standard Ancelotti inherits, and the standard Alisson was pointing to when he described the coach’s job as one that perhaps carries more pressure than the presidency itself. Saturday night will not answer that burden, but it will show how much of it Brazil can carry into the tournament’s first test.
